The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Temple Center for Teaching and Learning

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Temple Center for Teaching and Learning (1905), Austin College

Temple Center for Teaching and Learning (detail, 2003), Austin College

Institution Name: Austin College
Original/Historic Place Name: Thompson House
Location on Campus: SE corner
Date(s) of Construction:

1895	original construction Struue
1997	renovation
1997	restoration of front entry and parlor

Designer: Struue (first name unknown) (Taylor, TX)
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Victorian, Other (Glossary)
Significance: architecture, education
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: pier and beam, bois d'arc wood piers

Walls: wood fishscale and diamond shingles; horizontal wood clapboard

Roof: composite shingles with pressed metal shingles on turret

Function:

1895-1919	private residence (of the John Martin Thompson family)
1919-1938	private residence (of the Harry Bean family)
1938-1943	other (rooming house)
1943-early 1990s	residence hall (for students and faculty)
1990s-present (2006)	classrooms
1997-present (2006)	other (offices of Austin Teacher Program)

Narrative:
Temple Center, formerly the John Martin Thompson House, was built in 1895 by Captain John Martin Thompson, an east Texas lumber magnate who moved his family to Sherman so that his sons could be educated at Austin College. Capt. Thompson served on the Board of Trustees of the college, and one of his sons, J. Lewis Thompson, succeeded him as a trustee and ran for congress from Texas's 7th Congressional District in 1934. Another son, Hoxie H. Thompson, Class of 1901, also served a Trustee of the college and made substantial gifts of securities, real estate, and the house itself in the 1940s. The family contributed lumber for an athletic park for Austin College in 1903 and a gymnasium in 1923. They also financed the building of a science hall in 1913.

After the college acquired the deed to the property in 1943, Thompson House was used to house students and faculty, serving as a foreign language house for two decades. When building codes and restrictions made its continued use as a student residence unfeasible, it was renovated through a grant from the David E. and Cassie L. Temple Foundation for use as the center for the Austin College Teacher Education Program. Temple Center is an excellent example of Queen Anne/Eastlake style architecture. The exterior retains most of its original detailing. The north and east facades were designed to come together at the domed turret to form a symmetrical composition originally intended to be entered at a 45-degree angle. The interior has been altered drastically over the years, but original details were restored in the front entry and two parlors on the first floor during renovations in 1997.

References:

Cummins, Light T. Austin College: A Sesquicentennial History, 1849-1999. Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1999.

Cummins, Light T., and Edward Hake Phillips, eds. Footsteps to the Past: A Walking Tour of the Austin College Campus. Sherman, TX: Austin College, 1988.

Wallace, Percy Everett. "The History of Austin College." M. A. thesis, University of Texas, 1924.